


A Hop in the Right Direction

by Rulerofthecosmosandsnails



Series: Miscellaneous Kat/Merula [4]
Category: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Pre-Relationship, angst for like two seconds tho, gratuitous use of the frog choir, just a small thing i thought of at practice and then wrote lmao, merula and diego met in frog choir change my mind, merula’s no good very bad three hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 22:15:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30011763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rulerofthecosmosandsnails/pseuds/Rulerofthecosmosandsnails
Summary: Merula’s week was going fine until her frog choir-mandated toad was carried off by an untrained owl. Luckily - or, unluckily - for her, she knows just the person to bribe for help.
Relationships: Player Character/Merula Snyde
Series: Miscellaneous Kat/Merula [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971796
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	A Hop in the Right Direction

“Solokov.”

The Ravenclaw looked up from her potions notes just as Merula slapped a box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans down on the table (food was heavily frowned upon in the library, and could result in suspension from the place for a week, but she could play it off like Solokov had had them all this time).

“I need a favor.”

Her brow creased as she hesitantly slid the box towards her and tucked it in her pocket. She did not like the clinking sounds that emanated from it. “What is it?”

Merula took a deep breath and her shoulders tensed in anticipation of an argument as she declared, “I need to borrow your frog.”

“Okay.”

“I know I haven’t done anything to gain your – wait, what?”

“Okay,” she repeated, “You can borrow Fyodor if you want.”

Gaping like a fish, it took a few moments to restart her brain. Eventually, she managed, “I – you’d just give it to me? Just like that? Why?”

Solokov shrugged, a bemused smile quirking the edges of her lips; Merula hated it. “Probably because you asked…? Not much nuance to it.”

“Because I asked. Because. I asked.” She didn’t know why, but the thought made her angry. “You don’t even know what I’m going to use it for!? For all you know, I could be giving it to Ismelda to do experiments with!”

“Well, what are you going to use her for?”

“Frog choir practice, but still, you shouldn’t just blindly trust me – “

Tilting her head in confusion, she said, “Why not? You’ve done some fucked up shit to me, but I don’t think you’d hurt animals. Plus, you actually asked me instead of just taking her.”

Merula would never, but the fact that Solokov had picked up on it made her ears prickle with heat. She growled and dragged a hand over her face, mumbling, “Merlin is testing me - ” she addressed the Ravenclaw once again - “is that just it? Is that all your simple little mind desires? That I just ask?”

“Snyde, that’s literally all I ever asked for.” As Merula floundered with her words once again, Solokov quirked a brow and asked, “So… are you gonna use Fyodor or – “

“Yes! Yes. I’m going to take your dumb frog to my frog choir practice and there’s nothing you can do about it.”  
“Great. When’s practice so I can bring her?”

“Four-thirty. Don’t be late or else I’ll jinx you.”

“Duly noted.”

With nothing else to say (except for maybe just to sling more insults at her, but it was getting late and curfew was approaching, and Merula was not about to get caught by Pince in the library after-hours) she turned on her heel and left.

\--

Solokov met her outside of the heavy double doors to the choir room, a small frog in her hand. It was nearly a quarter of the size of the assigned frog choir frogs, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, Merula supposed.

“Here she is!” She pressed the frog into the pillow that she held; it dwarfed the frog comically. The Ravenclaw then bent down and pressed a kiss to its slimy head, which quickly made the top-ten of grossest things she’s ever done (to her knowledge). Her smile turned a bit serious as she straightened up to face Merula again. “Take good care of Dorie, okay?”

She rolled her eyes as far back as they could go. “As if anything could happen to it in the frog choir room. The only one with a free wand there is Flitwick, idiot.”

“That’s what she said.”

“If I wasn’t holding your frog, I swear I’d hex you so hard you couldn’t walk for a week straight.”

“…That’s what – _ack!“_

Merula kicked her hard in the shin before she could finish her sentence again. She took the time where she was recovering to open the door and quickly slip inside, mercifully only hearing the opening sounds of a goodbye from her before she slammed the door shut. Ignoring the stares that commonly came when one slammed a door, she scurried to her spot near the front of the ensemble and squeezed in between two fifth years. Caplan grinned at her from the front row, and she pretended like she didn’t see it.

Practice went by swiftly, and for what Solokov’s frog lacked in size, it more than made up with sheer volume. It was practically the loudest frog in the room, and Merula figured that she would almost miss it when her replacement frog came from the shop. When it was over, she set the pillow down on her spot on stage and briskly walked over to where her water bottle sat, taking a few quick swigs of it before heading back to retrieve her borrowed frog. However, when she stopped in front of the cushion, the frog was nowhere to be found.

Instantly, a spike of anxiety drove its way into her stomach, but she forced herself to remain calm. It was fine. It’d probably just hopped off to the curtains since the meager shade they provided was nice and cool compared to the warm lights that illuminated the stage.

She checked each of the seven curtains for the frog. Twice. Absolutely nothing.

Okay. Her hands were starting to get sweaty, but it wasn’t a disaster yet. It was still in the room, that was for sure, since no one had opened the door –

Someone did.

Some dumb fucking _asshole_ opened the door and now Solokov’s dumb, stupid frog could be anywhere in the dumb, stupid castle. Merula found herself burying her hands in her unruly hair and tugging sharply; come on, back to reality. She could do this. She could, dammit!

“What’s going on, Snyde?” Caplan’s voice nearly startled her out of her skin, and she whipped around to face him.

“Dammit, Caplan, don’t motherfucking do that shit!” Okay, that might have been a little harsh, but she was panicking, alright?! She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Solokov’s stupid frog ran off. I’ve been trying to find it, but some fucker opened the door, and now it could be anywhere!”

“Hey, whoa, it’s okay. It’s gonna be fine, okay? I’ll help you find her frog.”

“You would? I mean, of course you would. You owe me one since I kicked your ass last Sunday.”  
“You won one duel out of three.”

“Yeah, well I still won one. Listen, are you gonna help me look for it or not, asshole?”

Caplan held up his hands in a surrender position. “I already said I would. You can look in here, and I’ll comb the outside hallway for a loose frog, alright?”

“Fine.”

She watched him slip past a couple of seventh years that had coagulated near the door, before rolling up her sleeves and turning back to the stage. If she wanted to find that slippery bastard, she was going to do it as quickly as possible.

\--

Merula did not find that slippery bastard. Merula spent nearly three hours looking for said slippery bastard, and neither her nor Caplan managed to turn up anything. She even had to resort to asking Copper – stupid, weak little Copper! It was humiliating!

However, that humiliation was quickly turning to lead in her stomach as she peered out from behind a column in the courtyard to see Solokov sitting and talking with Khanna. Her palms were sweaty and she swallowed thickly at the thought of what she was about to do. She’d tell her, and then she’d probably cry over her lost frog, and then she’d hate her. The notion left a bitter taste in her mouth, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why. Merula hated the idiotic Ravenclaw, honest, but the thought of her hating her back…?

She shook the thought out of her mind. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and marched right over to where the two were talking about the nuances of Weedosorus or whatever dumb experiment bullshit they usually talked about. 

“Solokov,” she said as she stomped to a stop in front of her, “I need to speak with you.” Merula eyed Khanna. “Alone.”

“I – okay?” She threw a confused glance over to her friend, who shrugged. “Yeah, sure, Snyde.”

Before she had a chance to stand on her own, the Slytherin roughly grabbed her wrist and dragged her over to a secluded spot behind a pillar.

“What’s this about, Snyde?” The concern on her face did nothing to dissuade the backflips her stomach was doing. “Are you okay?”

Merula refused to meet her eyes. “…Ilostyourfrog.”

“I – sorry, what was that?”

“I lost your stupid fucking frog, okay!” Fists clenching, she screwed her eyes shut as all the frustrations from the last three hours flowed out of her. “I fucked up, I know, okay! I just set down the pillow for like, a minute, and when I got back it was fucking gone! Merlin, I should have never asked to borrow it in the first place, because I knew some bullshit like this would happen, I’m so fucking sorry, alright – “

“Hey, hey, whoa – “ Merula gasped sharply as she felt arms wind around her middle and was powerless as her face was smushed into Solokov’s shoulder – “It’s okay, alright? It’s fine.”

Her buried themselves into her sweater, not quite reciprocating but not refusing the hug either. Her voice was muffled in the fabric as she snarled. “It’s not fucking fine, I lost your goddamn stupid frog! How - why are you so okay with this?!”

“’Cause she found me, like, two hours ago.”

Merula pulled back. _“What.”_

“Yeah, see?” Solokov unwound one of her arms from Merula’s middle and reached back into her hood, bringing out the goddamn stupid frog in question. “She’s fine.”

“So, you’re telling me that I spent three fucking hours trying to find that slimy little bastard, and it was with you the entire fucking time?!” She fisted her hands in her hair and made a high-pitched, frustrated noise. “I could have just fucking ignored it and left, and everything would have been just fine!”

She wanted to curse that dumb grin off her face. “Yeah, but it’s nice to know you care.”

“I don’t! I don’t fucking care about you or that stupid fucking frog!”

“Whatever you say, Merula.”

“Yeah, well, shut the fuck up!” She stomped away to avoid her teasing gaze, muttering, “I do one fucking nice thing for someone and everyone makes a big deal out of it.”

Solokov called after her. “Do you want to use her for the next practice?!”

“NO, I DO NOT, LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“Whatever you say!”

Merula grit her teeth and hoped with all her heart that that replacement toad came quickly.

**Author's Note:**

> check out my tumblr and come talk hogwarts mystery with me! https://struckbyelectriclove.tumblr.com/


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